Kathrine Frich
Western politicians travelling to Ukraine by train could be targeted.
Keeping the lights on usually feels like a simple matter of paying the bills.
But as global tensions rise, the national power grid is turning into a quiet battlefield.
Now, a series of mysterious outages has sparked fear and triggered wild threats from abroad.
A fiery warning
A top Russian official has issued a chilling new threat against European leaders. Dmitry Medvedev took to Telegram to suggest that Western politicians travelling to Ukraine by train could be targeted.
The former Russian president let rip in a furious post. According to the Express, he blasted German officials for their policies and suggested they deserve military strikes on their own soil.
“And every terror has sponsors,” Medvedev wrote on the platform. “At the moment, these are the heads of Western countries, primarily European ones. And they often travel to Kyiv by train…”
Power lines targeted
The harsh words come just as German authorities deal with highly suspicious electrical failures. Officials are looking into two incidents that disrupted power distribution across the country on Tuesday.
One attack hit a substation near the Jänschwalde coal plant in the northeast. Hours later, a deliberate short circuit knocked out power lines near Cologne.
Security officials believe someone staged these events on purpose. Herbert Reul, the interior minister for North Rhine-Westphalia, made the high stakes very clear.
“A substation is the nerve centre of our daily lives,” Reul said. “Anyone who attacks it isn’t just attacking a tin roof, they’re attacking our country, our economy, our daily lives, and all of us.”
Investigating the attackers
Out in a cornfield near the Cologne site, police discovered six hidden launch devices. The German news agency dpa reported that the attackers used rocketlike objects to throw a cable over the high-voltage lines.
Investigators concluded that the perpetrators deliberately caused a short circuit by placing conductive material, presumably cables, over the overhead line. The sudden flashes of light briefly knocked thousands of megawatts of power offline.
Right now, authorities remain unsure who actually organized the attacks. They suspect either left-wing extremists or foreign agents.
Hybrid danger grows
Brandenburg Interior Minister Jan Redmann told public broadcaster ARD that the country faces a complicated danger.
“What we are currently experiencing is a hybrid threat and we therefore cannot rule out the possibility that foreign powers are behind it,” Redmann warned.
Reul also confirmed the ongoing search for answers. He noted that investigators cannot rule out sabotage directed by a foreign government.
Sources: The Express, Telegram, dpa, ARD
